LIV GOLF ADELAIDE: TEAM POWER RANKINGS
Written by
Ryan Pohle, RotoWire
The LIV Golf League heads back to Australia for LIV Golf Adelaide. Last season’s event was an overwhelming success and it was named World’s Best Golf Event in 2023 by the World Golf Awards. Cameron Smith and his all-Australian Ripper GC team will be the local favorites. Talor Gooch, who made the move to Smash GC this year, won the individual title in Adelaide in 2023 while Dustin Johnson and his 4Aces GC team look to defend their team title.
1. TORQUE GC. Moving up one spot to top this week’s Power Rankings is Torque GC, which has been a model of consistency as the only team to finish fifth or better in all five events. Joaquin Niemann has been the star of the team with a pair of wins and four top-10 finishes and is coming off a T22 at the Masters. Following a slow start to the year, Carlos Ortiz has kicked it into gear with three straight top-15 results. Prediction: Niemann, Pereira, Ortiz, Munoz
2. LEGION XIII. Making the biggest jump in the rankings is Legion XIII fresh off a win in Miami – its second of the season which moved the team up to second in the season-long team standings. Captain Jon Rahm has had an excellent start to his LIV career, finishing in the top 10 in every event. Tyrrell Hatton has been in the top half of each tournament while Kieran Vincent is coming off his best finish of the year. Prediction: Rahm, Hatton, Surratt, Vincent
3. CRUSHERS GC. Crushers GC takes a slight drop in the standings following its worst result of the season in which the team placed sixth in Miami. Crushers GC still leads the overall standings, led by Bryson DeChambeau’s five straight top-10 finishes if you include his T6 result at Augusta National. Anirban Lahiri has been the most inconsistent player on the squad but did finish runner-up in Adelaide a year ago: Prediction: DeChambeau, Casey, Lahiri, Howell
4. STINGER GC. Bouncing back after a ninth-place finish in Hong Kong, Stinger GC picked up its second top-3 result of the year in Miami. Captain Louis Oosthuizen has been much improved this year with three top-10 results, which already matches his output from 2023. Meanwhile, Dean Burmester is coming off his first career LIV victory, and he and Charl Schwartzel will look to duplicate their top-10 finishes in Adelaide from last year. Prediction: Burmester, Oosthuizen, Schwartzel, Grace
5. SMASH GC. Smash GC finds itself fifth in the team standings even though the team recorded three seventh-place finishes. The addition of Talor Gooch to this year’s team has provided a boost, and he should help this week as the LIV Adelaide defending champion. Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak and Graeme McDowell all sit between 18th-21st in the individual standings. The ceiling for this team is high if Koepka finds his form. Prediction: Gooch, Koepka, Kokrak, McDowell
6. RANGEGOATS GC. Looking to keep the momentum going following its best finish of the season with a runner-up in Miami, the RangeGoats should feel comfortable in Adelaide after a second-place finish here last year. Granted, this is a team with two new members from a year ago, which includes Peter Uihlein who finished T7 here in 2023. Matthew Wolff has had a resurgent 2024 with a solo third in Miami and a pair of top-5 finishes. Prediction: Uihlein, Watson, Wolff, Pieters.
7. RIPPER GC. The home field advantage belongs to Ripper GC, as the quartet of Australians will be the fan favorite. That wasn’t much of an advantage last year as they finished eighth, although Cameron Smith did post a T3 result. The group is eighth in the team standings having finished in the bottom half in three of five events with a best finish of third. Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert are still in search of their first top-10 finish of the year. Prediction: Smith, Leishman, Herbert, Jones
8. FIREBALLS GC. The Fireballs’ ninth-place standing is a bit misleading as it has finished no worse than seventh but also lack a top-3 result. At some point that has to change as Sergio Garcia and Abraham Ancer both sit in the top 5 of the individual standings. Meanwhile, it has been a disappointing year for 24-year-old Eugenio Chacarra, a one-time LIV winner who has just one top-25 finish this year. The squad is hoping David Puig’s Asian Tour success will translate over to the League soon. Prediction: Ancer, Garcia, Puig, Chacarra
9. 4ACES GC. Serving as the LIV Adelaide defending champions are the 4Aces after coming from behind to win by a single shot last year. Overall, it has been a rough go of it for a team that was dominant in 2022, and outside of one runner-up finish, it has finished seventh or worse in the other four events. There’s some potential as Patrick Reed played well in the first major two weeks ago, and Pat Perez finished T3 here last year. Prediction: Reed, Johnson, Perez, Varner
10. CLEEKS GC. The Cleeks take a four-spot drop in this week’s Power Rankings, as it was unable to follow up a solid week in Hong Kong by finishing ninth in Miami. Despite being one of the oldest players on LIV, Richard Bland has played well with five top-15 finishes. Newcomer Adrian Meronk has three such results himself, but the continued struggles of Martin Kaymer and Kalle Samooja (zero top-20 finishes between them) has limited the potential. Prediction: Meronk, Bland, Samooja, Kaymer
11. HYFLYERS GC. Finding itself tied for last in the team standings we find HyFlyers GC, and the team is coming off back-to-back 12th-place finishes. Following a year in which he had five top-10 results, Cameron Tringale has a best result of T17 this year but returns to a venue where he posted a T3 last year. Brendan Steele continues to look for his old form as well, having failed to post a top-10 finish in nine straight starts. Prediction: Tringale, Steele, Ogletree, Mickelson
12. MAJESTICKS GC. One of five teams without a top-3 finish this year, the Majesticks are coming off a T12 finish in which none of their players finished in the top half of the standings. Henrik Stenson’s T11 result in Adelaide was the best of the group, and he leads the team at 29th in the individual leaderboard. Sam Horsfield hasn’t shown much in his return from hip surgery, posting a best finish of T14 in eight starts since. Prediction: Stenson, Poulter, Horsfield, Westwood
13. IRON HEADS GC. Coming in last in the Power Rankings once again are the Iron Heads, who didn’t show much in Miami with an 11th-place finish. Kevin Na gives the team the most hope as he posted a T11 at the event last year and has three top-20 finishes and is the only player on the team with such a result. Jinichiro Kozuma and Danny Lee are two of eight players that have failed to record a point in the individual standings. Prediction: Na, Kozuma, Vincent, Lee
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